to Steve and AJ and ladies, we appreciate you all so much. Don't forget that next Sunday is Operation Christmas Child. Where's Chris? I just want her to know I got it right. She probably heard me in the nursery anyway. Oh, there she is. All right, listen, I want you guys to know, right behind Clark, Chris, that is where you already sat. People do this, I think, just to confuse an old man. I go home and tell the wife, I'm so confused anymore, I don't know. All right, so. But they do end next week, and I guess you can, there's a suggested $9, is it? Is it mandatory? Well, you should, but not now. Okay. It's a strong suggestion. Yes. Okay. It helps them to pay the cost and so on there, but you can do it online or you can actually put a check in the box and so on there. I think my wife said it looks like it's easy to do it online. It's taken care of. They don't have to go through the boxes and so on there. All right, so that's coming up next week and get them in there as soon as we can because I'm not sure. Do they even say where they're going this year? Okay, so they go everywhere. All right, that's good, wonderful, wonderful. All right, so how to please God part three, and we are gonna close off this particular topic within the overall how to please God, and that topic has been the way to please God is by faith. And of course, if you read on in Hebrews chapter 11, there's a lot of individuals in there that said by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. How many times do we do things and we don't do it by faith? We just strike out and we think, I got this. I can handle it. I can take care of this. And of course, some of the things that they did, I'm sure they were quite challenging. And so they really had to do what they did by faith. Abraham left the land of the Ur of the Chaldees, and he went by faith in a God that he had just basically met for the most part. And God told him, he said, to a land which I shall show you. So you know, when that happens, you've got to go by faith. and oftentimes a lot of preachers and a lot of other missionaries and that's what they do they go by faith when they go out on faith promise again that promise is not a given promise necessarily but it is by faith that they go and so make sure you read the rest of that chapter in Hebrews chapter 11 that by faith But again, we have to remember, especially Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6, that without faith it's impossible to please God. And I'm sure that as a child of God that you would really want to please God with your life, amen? Please God with your marriage and please God with your family or your work, your work ethics and so on as a citizen or a husband and as a wife. And it's very important that we do seek to please God because if we have married, and it's why it is so important to really marry someone who is a born-again Bible-believing Christian. That is so that you as a spouse, when you seek to please God, your spouse will be pleased, too, as well. Amen? Because they also are striving to please God. But, you know, Peg and I enjoy watching Jeopardy from time to time. It's a little bit later in the evening. We've had supper, and so you're kind of chilling out a little bit before I go back down to my study and so on. on usually most evenings, and it says, but we enjoy watching Jeopardy, and as we do, at least I do, I wonder how many contestants, how is it they know so much about so many subjects? I'm thinking to myself, How can they possibly, I mean, it isn't just only that they know it, it's almost like within a split second. They only have so many seconds before they can actually buzz in, but in the time that they get there, I'm still reading it, and they're buzzing in there ready to answer the thing there. And even if I read it, I would have known what the answer was for the most part, but it's amazing. Sometimes I think it's, they memorize a lot of minutiae. But, you know, how that goes when it comes down to it. But maybe they get photogenic minds. I don't know. They read something and it's just stuck up there. Well, I've reached that age where no matter what's stuck up there, it still takes a lot of time for it to percolate up to the surface along the way. But usually you might find that they are usually well-read and perhaps avid readers on a very wide variety of subject matters. And perhaps they have, as I said, photogenic minds or just a great propensity for remembering things. And Christians should be avid readers of the Word of God for two simple reasons, amen? Number one, it is the most reliable source of information about God, as He has said to this Himself. I don't believe for a second that God ever left the preservation of His Word to man. God preserved it. God moved it, and God controlled it, and he brought the right people, the right languages, whether you're talking about the Hebrew, the Greek, or the King James English. And there are things about the King James English and the Hebrew and the Greek that are very similar in structures and verb structures that are really important that get lost in some of these other translations, if you will. In fact, I was just looking at one the other day, and it had one of the verses, I'm thinking to myself, oh, it was a, As far as I'm concerned, it was a distortion of 2 Timothy 2.15, where it says, study, show thyself approved under God. And I can't remember exactly how it was worded there, but I would never have gotten the imperative of studying the word of God. It was sort of like it was optional. I'm just so sick and tired of some of these translations, taking many of these key verses and trying to make it plain and simple. And when they do that, they lose so much of the truth. and the commands and the imperatives that are there. So first one, it is the most reliable source, but secondly, it is the greatest reliable source of information on how to be a Christian that God expects us to be. You don't see it on billboards, and I know, I love, we like to watch birds from time to time up here. We were doing something late yesterday afternoon, maybe around supper time or something like that, and all of a sudden from the corner of our eye, 12 turkeys. Forget Haniford, I remember my backyard. They're in my backyard. Twelve or so. We've watched them go from little ones to they're looking good. I don't think we can shoot them, but they're still looking good. Someone's going to get them some way, one way or another. I was looking at something here, and this is my, the three worst Bibles you own, three worst Bibles before we get really into the subject. I saw this, and it was posted by my granddaughter's husband, Pastor Blake Laboure from out in Oregon. And it may have been another site, but number one, the Bible you don't read. All right, he says, basically, what good is the Bible if you don't read it? Just because you own one. Well, you might want to press flowers in it. You might want to put genealogy in there. But anyway, yep, the Bible you don't read. Second one was the Bible you don't know. And, of course, we have a lot of questions. You know, people talk like they're an authority on the Word of God, and they probably couldn't tell you the first word in the Bible half the time, or at least the last one. And then the third one is simply, is this morning, and I don't know if you can even read that there, but I'm sorry about that. It's a Bible that you don't want to obey. And so I learned something about that real quick, didn't I? but it's the Bible that you don't want to obey, and I put down there, yep, okay, that's how they feel about God. So, anyway, God wants us, God wants to increase our faith by, and we'll open the Word of Prayer here, hearing of the Word of God, Romans 10, 17. Father, guide and direct us this morning as we look to the remainder of the messages here today that Lord, we'll bring honor and glory to you and that you guide and direct and encourage us in every step of the way that we'll be challenged. It's even nice to be reminded of some of the things that we may have forgotten or, Lord, sometimes we just get a little bit lax on some things that are really far more important than we give them credence for. So, Lord, you guide, you direct, meet the need, whether it's to salvation or to rededication. Lord, may there be clarity of thought, clarity of expression, and to receive it with clarity. And we'll give you the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. So the very first thing that we had looked at, hearing with the Word of God, was really important. Three ways that we can increase our faith by hearing. We said listening to sermons on a regular basis. Let me tell you right now, you will not get brain rot from listening to good, solid Bible sermons, alright? I've heard somebody say that you read the Bible too much and it's going to rot your mind out. Well, if it's going to rot, I'd rather have it rot on something good. And so number three is read your Bible every day, study and meditate. That's the imperative. It really is a command of God to do so. And then again, very quickly here, doing what we know to do, Luke chapter 16 and verse 10. The idea was that God wants us to take small steps at first. First Peter 2.2 is, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, and they grow thereby. And then B is that God wants to teach us how to serve. How do we serve Him? Well, you know, everybody says, well, I can take books, I can lead. No, He's talking about how to serve Him. A servant's heart. How do you develop a servant's heart? We need to develop a servant's heart in order to be able to serve Him. And you just can't serve Him willy-nilly. You have to have a clean heart. We just sang this song, Creating Me a Clean Heart. God wants to be able to create us a clean heart. How do we do that? Through the Bible. See, God is wanting us to know His presence. If you're not reading the Bible, you tend to get away from the fact that God is with you, and you begin to make decisions independent of God. But if you're in the Scriptures on a regular basis, you're learning, you're gleaning, and so on, and it becomes a part of your life. And of course, God is wanting us to learn to lean on him as well. We don't have all the answers. We don't even know what tomorrow holds. He does, and so why not lean on him today? And our faith will increase as we busy ourselves serving him. So God wants to increase our faith by studying his word, amen, 2 Timothy 2.15. Study there is in the imperative. A cursory reading certainly is inadequate. It's not gonna help you learn what you need to learn. It's not gonna challenge the way you need to be challenged. And the Bible is written to be a transformational book. It's not just a book to read because you have nothing better to do. It is a book that is meant to transform the way you think. It's meant to transform your desires. It's meant to transform your outlook. It's meant to transform your view on the world. I believe it was Don Paul that mentioned that. He was talking about having a worldview or a biblical view. And right now we see what the worldview is. It's pretty grim all the way around. And then of course, C, study the Bible. Studying the Bible stabilizes us because it puts us on solid ground, solid footing, and so on. So D, it is how God increases our faith through the word of God. We see what he has done. We know what he can do. And therefore, we will, sort of like, I was here with the adult science school class this morning, and that was when it comes to the Red Sea. Anytime you read the scriptures on the Red Sea, I want you to compare any problem you've ever been through with the Red Sea. Think about that. If he can part the Red Sea, you don't think he can't handle your problem for a second or two or forever or for all eternity? There is no problem that we go through that is any bigger than his ability to part the Red Sea and have everybody walk through on dry land. And so reading biographies of famous Christians. And so you say, well, you know, I don't really like to read a whole lot. Well, listen, you need to learn to read. You'll never make it to Jeopardy if you do. In fact, you'll put yourself in Jeopardy if you don't read the Word of God. How's that? So number one is read biographies of famous people. The Bible has many great passages, if you will. Many passages with ordinary men and women. See, Abraham was an ordinary man. There was nothing really great about him. There was nothing great about Esther. Esther was a Jewish girl. Her parents were lost in the battle, in the captivity. They died and she was being raised by her uncle Morikei. And she was just as far as anybody else in Babylon was concerned, under King Artaxerxes, that she was just a Hebrew girl. And God catapulted her, just an ordinary little girl, to being the wife of the king and saving many people alive, as Mordecai said, that God had brought her to that place for that time. So, think of Enoch. The Bible said that Enoch walked with God. Now, he didn't always walk with God. He was about 300 years old when all of a sudden the Bible says that Methuselah was born. Was it Methuselah that was born? I'm trying to think here. And it says that Noah began to walk with the Lord. And he walked with the Lord and guess what? God translated him. God just doesn't translate anybody. I mean Enoch had such a close and intimate walk with Him that God translated to him as we read in the book of Hebrews. Abraham, again an ordinary man, just minding his own business as a heathen, pagan religion, idols and images and all that stuff there. And God reached down and raised him and he became the father of a great nation. Now he had his ups and downs, he was not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination, but he still, key notes in his life were all by faith. Daniel taken into captivity. He'd much rather, I'm sure, have been back in Israel, but here he is. He's in Babylon. And even there, the Bible says, he purposed in his heart not to defile his body with the king's meats or the king's wine. So he purposed. He made a choice. That's what that's all about. And so God used him greatly. He became a number one counselor to, I think, three or four different kings, if you will. You look at Ruth, I'm awed by this, who actually is in the lineage of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She became the wife of Boaz. after her first husband passed away, and of course, not to her mother-in-law's help by any stretch of the imagination, but God guided Esther, as we had mentioned there, Lydia, she made clothing and she had a great testimony, a great witness there, but she didn't rule the world or anything, but yet she's known historically as a very charitable woman with a faith in God. The Apostle Paul, and on we could go, they made choices. Every one of them made a choice. They were going to trust God. They were going to have faith in God. And they did just that. We can learn from their lies what not to do. Certainly, Abraham, his first test was when he was in there. It was a famine in the land. And he had to learn something about his own heart concerning God. And so he learned that. So we can learn from their lies what not to do, what we should do, and how we should walk with God. Amen? The second one was here that world history also has the record of ordinary men and women who became great because they also made the right choices. Now, you know, look at some of the Bible translators. We've talked about Tyndale and a few of those others, but you're looking at Huss and Knox and read some of their biographies and what these men went through, what their families endured. Susanna Wesley who raised Charles and what's the other one? Yeah, John and Charles Wesley. I mean, they were very instrumental in an awakening in England. Not St. Hock's in different places at different times, but they were reformers and they were fighting the Roman Catholic Church. They were fighting the Pope. They were fighting against the king and the queen within England and France and in Germany and other places where the Bible was being... That's the word I'm looking for. Anyway, they believed in the Bible, they believed in the scriptures and they didn't accept the Pope and they didn't respect the teachings from the Church of England and so on and many of them started out as priests in the Catholic Church, within Roman and within Catholicism. And then they began to read the scriptures. They began to go, whoa, wait a minute, there's something wrong here. And many of them were burned at the stake alive. They were literally burned alive. Others were tortured, as you can read, again, in the Hall of Fame in Hebrews chapter 11. So some of the books that I read when working on my master degrees and my doctorate was the archived history of the men and women of God who so lived lives of faith in some of the cruelest conditions and circumstances, folks. We're pathetic. I mean, from pulpit to the pews, we're pathetic in relation to what these men and women went through. What they endured, literally, rather than surrendering their faith, they were willing to die. And not in just talking about kicking the bucket. We're talking about cruel, harsh ways of dying. And I'll be honest with you, I was so ashamed and convicted about my own life and how much easier we have it today. Nothing like what they had to do. And so history holds so many lessons, be it in the form of biographies or historical events or trends. The thing is to simply read because we can learn so much from the lives of these individuals that could be a real blessing, how we can stand and how we should stand along the way. But we also, we must be careful not to skip our Bible reading because that can happen too. We can get caught up in commentaries and reading our commentaries and so on. We have to remember that commentaries are not to replace our time studying God's Word. Now you may want to use them for help, but you've got to be careful because a lot of commentaries out there are worthless when it comes right down to it. But a commentary is just that. It's a commentary. It's not the Bible. So don't let it replace your Bible reading. The Bible is divinely inspired. Commentaries are men's mind and men's thoughts. on the scriptures. I'm sure they've prayed about it and they've studied it themselves and that's what they've come up with. So when we read about the lives of other believers and our faith is increased and encouraged as we read of their unfeigned faith in the Lord, if they could do it, so can we. Why not? If they did what they could do in their lifetime for God, why can't any of us here do it today? They were not special men and women. They became special only because they yielded and surrendered fully to the Lord and the Lord's will for their lives. That's what made them special. That's why they're in the Bible. Because there's bazillions of others that are out there that are not in the Bible. Amen? And so, very quickly here, because we've got community to go today, God wants to increase our faith by obedience to the things that we may not like. Malachi chapter 3. And I know that here at Calvary, I do not spend a lot of time talking about money. God is blessed and God is gracious, but that doesn't mean I'm not supposed to teach what the Bible says. If it's in the Bible, it's got to be taught at some point, one particular time or another. And of course, I know that instantly when I hear something like this, they sit down real tight to the pew so they can keep their wallets hidden down and way out of the way or something. I don't know. But anyway, looking in Malachi chapter 3, and this is Old Testament, but the principle is still the same as far as giving into the ministry of the Lord. And he's asking them the question, will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? He says, in tithes and offerings. And he says, verse 9, and ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bringing all the ties into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me Now we're here with sayeth the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the window of heaven Windows of heaven and pull you out of blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And he says, I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast a fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. See, God wants to bless us, but there are certain areas that God blesses us based on certain criteria, certain Bible principles. So we have this tendency to view the Bible as a smorgasbord in which we get to pick and choose what we want, what we don't want, what we like, what we don't like, what we will practice, and what we won't practice. Now, yes, there are some things in the Old Testament applied to the Jews under the law. There are certain things that are now applied to us under grace. But, you know, principles never change. I don't care whether they're Old Testament or New Testament. Principles are principles. Amen? Precepts are precepts. They still remain the same. Okay, the Bible is not a smorgasbord, as we just said there. We will honor God in this area of our finances. So it is either a state of rebellion or the idea that we know more than God does as to what is best or what is not best. When you talk about reading the Bible, you don't know more than God. Collectively, we don't know more than God. What we know is what God has shared. What we can know is all that God has taught us and led us to learn through our own Bible study, through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God, or maybe through other teachers. But when it comes to, we are either fully yielded, or we're not. You can't be yielded in this area here. Now, listen, I could yield my body and say, I'm not ever going to smoke. I don't smoke. I don't want cigarettes or I don't want to drink. I don't want to drink alcohol. I don't want to do any of those things. I don't have a problem. I don't do it. It's not a problem in my life. But it is a problem in other people's lives. But there's other areas I can rebel against God. There's other areas I can say, you know what, Lord, I don't know about that. And finance is one of those areas. I'm beginning to think, OK, well, I could have this. I could have that. We could buy this. We could buy that. Think of all the money we give to the Lord and the ministry there and so on. But I don't believe that you ought to teach anything in a church if you're not obedient. If you haven't been saved, you haven't been baptized, you're not a church member, you really probably shouldn't be teaching along in those areas. Because how are you going to teach others if you're not practicing it? or you want to be one of those things, don't do as I do, but do as I say. That's not how the Bible works, amen? You all preach it. Do you tithe? Absolutely. We've been tithing decades and decades and decades. In fact, we've gotten to the point now where we've trusted God, where our faith promise is even larger than our tithe. That's in addition to the money that we give as a result of that. We trust God, and we did it all the time. Our kids were in Christian school. We did it all the time. Our kids were in Christian colleges. Was it easy? No, it wasn't always easy, but it was the right thing to do. And so if you want to do the thing that's right, you have to do it all. It's not a matter of picking and choosing. So when it comes to talking about finances and giving to the church, far too many allow themselves to feel that God has no right to what you earn. Listen, God can take your health. Make a deal with God. Say, God, if it's okay for me to not tithe, then Lord, you let me know. Take away my job, take away my health. So I can't work. Any takers? I don't think so. God gives you the health. God's made it possible for you to be able to work. God can take your job, God can take your health away from you in a heartbeat. Not as a punishment, but just to kind of take away the blessings that he gives you. Because I've always found out, and Peg and I have found out, and I'm sure many of you have also found out, that when you give liberally as the Lord leads you to give, you cannot give God. If we actually had to come up with a monetary amount for the blessings, that God has provided for us in our children's education and Christian school and Christian colleges and so on there, we wouldn't have enough money in a couple of lifetimes to be able to pay it back. There's no way we could do it. Maybe we have been blessed beyond belief. So we don't talk about money very much here at Calvary, even the subject of money, and investments along with honesty in this area are talked about numerous times in the scriptures, though. And so when Larry Burkett was alive, an economist, an economic graduate with a master's in economics, began to search the scriptures. He said it was amazing. He said, I found, I think, about 300 or so verses. He said, I went through it a second time. He said, I found over 800. He said, I went through it a third time. He said, I found quite a few thousand verses that had to do with finances. So it's not a subject that the Bible just kind of ignores. It's there, it's in the word of God, and he expects God's people to be responsive. So as Larry went back, as I said, so what does God say concerning the Israelites' failure to be obedient in this area? Well, you look back in verses eight and nine, and it says, will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings? Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. So if we are going, oh, I should say something about the, David Ramsey has a great book for Christian couples. He's got a number of books out there. He's updated the financial piece, I believe. But parents, everyone is a young person when they get ready to work. They should read that book and you should take some time to discuss it with them so they have a mindset of what this is all about. And Dave Ramsey, it's not a Bible preaching book, but he has common sense approach. He himself has taken Bible principles, applied them to his life, and even though he said at one time he actually was a millionaire and he lost it all. And then he went back and he began to get in the Word of God, apply Bible principles to his life there. And he said, before you knew it, he was climbing back up that ladder again. Now, don't ever use the Word of God to seek financial security. Our security is always in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know what? When we give to God and we give into the ministry, listen, souls get saved as a result of that. Peg's reading a book there about John and Becky Marshall. Bob and Becky Mack, the missionaries to Ivory Coast. We got to know them quite well. My oldest son, Ron, went to school. At that time, Bob was an upperclassman. He met Becky, who was one of the 14 children that the marshals had. They had been here in music group and preaching and so on. They've done a tremendous work. that would not have been possible if it wasn't for the generosity of the people of God. You know, a lot of people could have a part in that, but there are a lot of Christians who have no part in it. Some because they don't know about it, but those who do know about it still don't give. They have no part in the blessings that are going on in the Ivory Coast, in Dangerville, and those other towns and cities where he's got an orphanage, where he's got a radio station, he's got a college, and he's got a clinic. They're working over there. I mean, they have a staff, they have doctors that come in, and nurses, and it's all free because God's people give. Looking at the potential of a Christian school right in the middle of Baghdad. That's going to come about if they give them the permits that they need to build it, but because God's people are investing in the lives of those Muslims in that country to get saved. But people have to give. We can turn around and look at someone else and say, well, let them give. That's okay, because they get the blessings too. And you get nothing. Really, you get nothing. Except for sour grapes. That's pretty much what it comes down to, if you will. But the New Testament principle is to give as God has prospered you. And always give with this attitude that you can never out-give God. God knows what your needs are, and you can certainly apply Matthew chapter 6, verse 33. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you. So, you know, listen, trust God. If God touches you to give a certain amount, then give a certain amount. Get involved in Faith Promise. I'll tell you, a church as small can do so much with missions here because our general fund is up, because our missions fund is up. And if it goes up, then somehow it just seems that because God blesses, the general fund goes up as well. I don't know too many churches where that has been indifferent to. It always aggrieves me when I see churches cut back on their missions program. It's egregious for them to be able to do that because people have gotten away from God and it says a lot about the spiritual climate. So our mission program is a faith promise program and because of those who are obedient to God, our mission family is about 30. Some missionaries or organizations such as the Christian Law Association and the National National Center for Life and Liberty, which is his son. So our bills are always paid on time, and our debt's retired early. Since I've been here, God has blessed us. And if we had to take out a loan for renovation, we always paid it off early, always within probably a year or so earlier than it was wont to be. And you know, that's because God blesses us because others are faithful in this area. Obedience in this area increases our faith. when we see what God can do through those who give. And lastly, and very quickly here, God wants to increase our faith by being a clean vessel. Love that song. I didn't know it wasn't playing that way because I didn't talk to you about it. Being a clean vessel, 2 Peter chapter one. We'll just turn there very quickly in the few moments we have left. 2 Peter chapter one. And he says, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, what? Virtue. And he goes on and he gives a chain here and he says, and to virtue, knowledge. and to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Boy, imagine This particular process is a growing, it's a process of growth. This chain that we just read begins with a saving faith in the person of Jesus Christ. Then to this we add virtue to virtue of knowledge and temperance. We add all these things here. You know, it all comes from the book. It comes from the word of God. It doesn't just come willy-nilly to you and it doesn't get somewhere God opens up a little lid in your head there while you're asleep at night time and crams a bunch of stuff in there. Virtue is moral courage. Listen, we need to have moral courage among Christians. I don't know, I'm just hypothesizing, if you will, that I've heard that there are Christians in the House and I know that there are Christians in the Senate there in Washington, D.C., but I'm going to be honest with you, I don't know where the moral courage is. How can you pass a one point something trillion dollar bill as a Christian knowing that this is going to put a burden on not only the taxpayer, well they're not going to raise my taxes, sure they are. I mean the corporations, they have to pay taxes and they're going to take their taxes out of the price that you pay for things. It all trickles down to us at one point or another. But you know, people are just so gullible. Sadly, they're gullible. That somehow, no, it's not a tax on you directly, but indirectly, it channels down at some particular point. So why aren't these Christians down there with some moral courage and a backbone and standing up and saying, we're not gonna do that, it's wrong. If we were a nation under God, we wouldn't have to be borrowing from around the world. That's a simple fact. I mean, God told Israel, and He promised them, listen, if they would walk with Him, then they would be the head, then the world would be the tail. And He said, unfortunately, you flip-flopped that, and now you're the tail and the world's the head. Think about that for a minute. I mean, here America has so much to be prosperous that we could continue to give to the world and even have more to give to the world. We just need some people down in Washington who want to fill you with some real moral courage. Some real moral courage. So the virtue we have to add knowledge, this is godly knowledge gained by studying God's word, by the way. And then thirdly, there's the moral fabric of America, I believe is pagan morally. The culture of America has really become pagan in essence. I mean, who kills innocent defenseless babies and feels it's a parent's right to do so? a right, defenseless, innocent. They care more about a kangaroo, rat, and a spotted owl than they do about a baby in the womb. Well, pagans, yes. Godless, yes. I believe those without a soul or a conscience are those who have no moral virtue. So this is about a decision. I got behind myself here, but pardon. So this is the decision about how we will live our lives for God. Are you going to purpose your life for God? We hear that a lot today about repurposing, don't we? Repurposing old furniture or repurposing this or repurposing that. Listen, God has saved you. God has redeemed you. How about if you purpose your life for God? Make your life a life purpose to serve and to walk with God. Our faith is increased when we feel the sure presence of the Lord in our steadfastness, knowing his presence. Father, we thank you for this time that we could be together. How precious is your word today. Lord, we're trying to be a successful Christian and we're trying to take shortcuts. Oh Lord, we're sitting around waiting for something unique and spectacular to happen in our lives that will make us what we will not expend the energy towards. Lord, purposing is a choice. And it's a choice that means to put some elbow grease. Lord, it's a decision that means that we're going to have to be adamant about our steadfastness in all things spiritual, not the picking and choosing of this and the picking and choosing of that, and slighting this and slighting that, and somehow expect you to open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing. Lord, we're either very naive, gullible, or just plain stupid. One of those three. if we believe anything but what the Word of God has to say. And so Lord, you guide and direct as individuals both here in the sanctuary or at home, read and meditate and study the Word, and they grow and they grow in grace. And Lord, you've given us a number of avenues through which we can, but supreme is the Word of God, that we might grow in our faith, that we might become just ordinary men and women, ordinary homes, ordinary families that can do spectacular things for God. But Lord, we've got to want to purpose our personal lives, we have to purpose our marriages, we have to purpose our families. We have to purpose this ministry for your honor and for your glory. Father, use us toward that end. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed as we give an invitation here today and use the child of God as Diane quietly plays on the piano today. I don't know if you've ever come to a place where you've purposed your life for God. Sadly, I think a lot of people surrender to the Lord, but they don't really purpose their life for the Lord. They just feel that tug and they move forward, and then they move forward in what they believe is their own agenda. But how about you this morning? Whether you're in a pulpit or whether you're in a pew, whether you're at home sitting on a sofa or wherever it is you might be, have you purposed your life for God? Have you purposed that God can use you, guide you, and direct you into things that he wants to use you for? If you've done it as an individual, have you done that as a husband and a wife? Have you done that as a family? If not, why not? Why not? Heads are bound, eyes are closed. Say, Preacher, God has touched my heart. And though I believe I have purposed it, I've kind of let it slack a little bit. And I need to pick up the pace. I need to be more fully surrendered. And I need to strengthen that purposing, that choice that I've made. Preacher, would you pray for me today? Yes, I see hands here. Preacher, would you pray for me today? I want to make sure that my life is purposed. I mean, he purposed his life for you, did he not? Sure he did. And maybe this morning you're saying, Preacher, I'm not even sure if I got a home in heaven, but would you pray for me this morning at home? This question is the same. If you do not know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, where you are, you don't have to be in a church, you don't have to be in an altar, it's a nice place to be. But you can come to a saving knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ, right where you are, just to understand that you are a sinner, and that you deserve hell. We all do. But Christ gave his life and became a substitute, and if you'll believe in Christ, accept him as your savior. And he'll do just that. He'll put your name in that last book of life. Forget about the hoops. That's Maine's idea. God's idea is to just come to a saving faith in the person of Jesus Christ, and he'll save you. Well, Father, we thank you for this time that we could be together and gathered around your word. And Lord, as we get ready to go into the communion service today, Lord, we want to honor and we want to glorify you in this communion time that we have. And so, Lord, you guide and you direct with the heart as we participate that we'll participate accordingly. For Lord, we know that there are two requirements, and number one, we must be saved. We must know Jesus Christ as our own personal Lord and Savior. And then secondly, as believers, we must have a right relationship with you. So Father, you guide and direct, and may we participate accordingly, we pray in Jesus' name. Steve, good night.